Inspirasi Untuk Idea-Idea Yang Meletops?

I plan to start my day by preparing two lecture notes for my university students. Today, I’ll be working from home and will force myself out for late lunch after zuhur prayer, either tapau or drop by my mom’s house nearby. The rule says that we should eat our ugly frog first, meaning that we should start our day with the task that we hate the most. Yes, I do have few ugly frogs today.

#1 Prepare two lecture notes
#2 Prepare two Unit File (which was due last year 2013). That’s the proof how bad I am with admin work and can be awarded with a Phd in procrastination. Ohhhh bad bad habit.
#3 Editing an academic paper to be submitted to Malaysian Institute of Management (MIM). My co-author set up a due date of 4th February. Oh my ugly frog.

Honestly, what I love the most, my kind of dream work, is to start my day in front my pc, typing, composing paragraphs of stories, while the flow of ideas breezing my face and enjoying my hot 3-in-1 coffee. Caffeine rocks my world.

On this lucky and sweet smell morning, I pick up my old habit in 2008-2009, which is to start a day with whatever new book on my table and to get inspired by words and pictures from the book. I am a writer, thus words are my energy creator. And I am a visual learner too, thus colourful pictures spark and trigger tons of ideas.

Book of the day is Portfolio of Inspirations: How Creative People Think, Work and Find Inspiration by publisher Page One. I just found out that Page One is a book store and also published niche books for creative industries.

Well, let’s peek at their thoughts, habits and working space of numerous outstanding creative people out there. I am very bias with my sharing selection over here as I chose related epitome to myself.

Myself: I used to have this kind of messy workspace especially when I am on my writing mode. I can glue myself on the chair and desk for long hours when ideas storming my head. For years, I have been practising few methods to invite ideas. So, basically, if I decided to write, I can just turn on computer and do my things and start writing. My current wish is to start reading/writing as early as 4 or 5 am, take an hour break for tahajjud and Subuh prayer and continue working till 10 am. By 11 am, I can start other things like reading emails and FB or going to office or get my brunch.

Simon Bang, storyboard artist, Copenhagen.
“I think the most inspiring thing is when your desk is tidy, your finances are in order and you have a white sheet of paper in front of you.”

Myself: Maintaining a tidy desk 24/7 is quite challenging but I have tried to have bigger desk, I actually combine two white desks, to give an ample space to arrange all my stuffs. I have tried brain stimulation with yellow, red and purple lined notepad but it didn’t work. Just like Simon, I work with plain white A4 paper. Its a good start with white paper, white desk, white wall, whiteboard, white bookshelf and white closet.

Thomas Sandell, architect, Stockholm.
“My office is open-plan and messy. That’s how I work the best.”

Myself: Woooow I love spacious open-space concept. Right now, I have transformed my living hall as my workspace. There you go… no flat screen or home theatre. All my visitors will have me and only me. Trust me, I am a better entertainer than those fancy gadgets.

But I also like my small office in Sg. Long. Once a while, I will work from office with typical blue chair and gray table. The small room give me a feeling like I am in a small box and it can increased my level of focus drastically. The main problem is there are colleagues or students who will knock the door and disturb my work. Thus, I prefer to work at home.

Thomas Sandell, architect, Stockholm.
“I sketch a lot, and order 20 sketchbooks at a time.”

Paul Smith, designer, London
“I use a notebook and pencil everyday.”

Ingegerd Raman, product and glassware designer, Stockholm.
“I sketch on greaseproof paper that I buy cheap from the supermarket. It’s not intimidating, you can make mistakes without feeling that you’ve ruined the paper.”

Myself: Maybe our subconscious goal is to have one bookshelf of notebook, scrapbooks or sketchbooks. So many creative individuals in this book collect ordinary things and compile them in all kind of books or boxes… some of their collectible items are pictures of shoes, broken things, polaroid photos, wrapping papers, coins, souvenirs, toys, little statues, stickers, postcards, tickets, menus and many more.

Koleksi nota-nota sepanjang 2006-2012.

I started blogging then writing notes back in 2005 or 2006 and detest almost everything I wrote. They were so bitter and destructive. The only good thing that came out from this dark episode in my life is I accidentally wrote few good short stories and was selected to be published (under indie imprint with another female writer). They called it an avant garde piece (yolah sangat…) as there was very few female indie writers back then in 2009/2010.

As I sat down with my author friend late Dec 2013, we decided that it is impossible for us to write again with that old tone. Life has changed in so many ways for both of us. I still write as I love to write but I can no longer be fictional coz I told myself to STOP! I did enjoy the fictional ride before but somehow it was way too crazy. To continue writing fiction, I had to keep in a delusional mode and bipolar personality. Uhhhhhh that is just crazy insane and ridiculous.

Yes, I deliberately stayed away form fiction writing as I am teaching myself to be a better human being. We have two life. Whatever we did in our first life does matter and I want the best for my second life. InsyaAllah.

Daaaaaaaaaaaaa… You can have a peek of my reading over here >>> BACA BUKU.